Postgame interview with Ozzie Guillen

White Sox manager meets the media after Game 2 defeat to Rays

By / MLB.com

Do you regret leaving Buehrle in there too long kind of the way Grady Little did with Pedro in the 2000 ALCS?

OZZIE GUILLEN: Nope, he's my best guy, and he was throwing well. The only ball hit hard in that inning that was the ball Upton hit. And no, I'm not going to regret that. I can sleep tonight and the rest of my life real good.

Just in general tonight you guys had a few chances, several chances to score runs. Basically your hits were such that you could only advance runners one base, couldn't get much out of what you had? Was that just frustrating?

OZZIE GUILLEN: It's White Sox baseball. You know, we have 12 hits, we got two runs and that two runs were in the first inning. We got Kazmir against the ropes and we let him go. And we left 12, 14 people on base. You're not going to win that many games like that. The opportunities were there, and we couldn't get it done.

They have what? They had 12 hits and they scored six runs. That means they got clutch hitting with that.

Can you just talk about in the later innings all of the called third strikes? Was that something that bothered you?

OZZIE GUILLEN: Well, you're not going to get anything going if you don't swing the bat. You can see so many pitches or see the difference in the strike zone, whatever it is. But I remember Rocco who told me if you want to get a hit, you have to swing the bat. That's the only way you're going to get a hit.

But I think early in the game he was doing a pretty good job trying to make Kazmir throw a strike. But late in the game, they were throwing more strikes than what we thought.

What do you tell your team now that you're down in this 0 2 hole?

OZZIE GUILLEN: The same thing I say almost all summer long. We're against the wall. We've got to fight like a cat, and now it's a must win game. Now it is. You know, we took care of that in that same situation, we handled it real well. Hopefully play back home. We'll win one game, and we can get a roll. That's the way we played all year long. Hopefully we'll win when we get home in the next couple of days.

Ozzie, what is your take on how well Tampa Bay's bullpen has pitched and how tough they could be for the rest of the series?

OZZIE GUILLEN: You know, they're here for a reason. They're here because they can pitch and they catch the ball. They will take any little thing and take advantage of their speed and they don't strike out much.

When you have that combination with the ballclub, you can be anything in the big leagues, because you have so many different weapons, you have to be aware about anything. They don't have a legit closer, and I see they have lefty, righty, lefty in the bullpen. That's why they have the brightest men I've seen in the game right now.

Courtesy of FastScripts by ASAP Sports.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.